My grandfather bought and used extensively an Edison Coffin Lid Cylindrical Record player. My father inherited it, and I in turn inherited it from him. It looks like this:

As evidence of his usage, there are 180 cylinders. The cylinders look like this

The name of the artist and the “cut” is embossed on the end of the cylinder.

The cylinders were packed in cardboard tubes. This is a tube and a cylinder.

The player was spring driven, here is a picture of the handle and, in the framed photograph above it the original owner of the player. The little baby is me. I haven’t changed much. The spring drove a threaded bar ensured that the needle moved across the cylinders length.

The sound was produced by a needle causing a diaphragm to vibrate at the apex of a curved pyramid. It was, if you like a mechanically driven horn.

Volume control? You stuffed a piece of cloth into the narrow part of the horn. The cloth you can see in the next picture is one of my fathers old vests. Just maintaining familial contact I guess.